The Colette Aster Shirt

It has been a while since I posted here! Last time was in April, and so much has happened in between. The lockdown got lifted (and reinstalled partially) here in the Netherlands, social life opened up bit by bit and with that my priorities might have been not entirely with sewing all of the time… And especially not with taking pictures! The outfit I designed back in April was ready already in May I think, but has been waiting for forever to be taken out into the world. But alas, here is the first project and review of that outfit!

As I mentioned in that post and in my Make Nine, I have a basket full of unfinished projects, clothing that needs repairing and other projects that did end up there. This blouse was one of them. I started this project back in 2017, cut it several sizes too big for some reason, and never finished it. I picked it apart completely, and cut the pieces again in the right size. Luckily I still had a piece of the fabric lying around, so I even had enough to cut a piece of matching bias binding.

After fumbling around with pieces that had to be recut, the blouse came together very easily. As per usual with Colette patterns, the instructions were very clear and easy to follow, and the pieces matched up perfectly.

I went out for a walk with my boyfriend to take some pictures, and I really have to thank him for the awesome pics he made. I hate being in front of a camera (which is probably one of the reasons why I put off taking pictures for so long) but I felt comfortable enough this time. We made the best of it, and when wearing an umbrella, there is not reason not to go full Mary Poppins and fool around a bit!

No on to a few details of the blouse. From afar, it might look like a white fabric with grey dots, but if you look closely, the dots are actually little duckies. I chose wooden buttons with a cute cutout motif. I think they add a bit of visual interest, but not in an in-your-face way. I like visually interesting details, but this blouse was meant to be a more neutral piece, and I think it succeeded in being just that.

Is it my dream blouse? No, I think I would change a few things in a next version, which does mean that I like the pattern enough to consider a next version (so many nice sleeve options!). I think most of the issues I have with it have to do with the choices I made, so they can be improved upon. Firstly, the fabric. The cotton is a bit stiff, and therefore the blouse doesn’t drape as nicely as I would like it to. As you can see in the picture below, there is a back pleat under the yoke, but because of the fabric stiffness this gives a slight balloon effect when I tuck the blouse in my skirt or pants. This might improve over time, but I would prefer a fabric with more drape in the future.

In addition, I have the feeling that the neckline is gaping a little. It doesn’t want to lie flat completely, and it bothers me sometimes. I think this has to do with the fact that I had to recut the blouse. The neckline is on the diagonal, and it might have stretched after all the handling of sewing the blouse up twice. The final thing is that I would maybe lengthen the blouse a few centimeters when I sew it up next time. Colette patterns fit very good on my body and I usually do no pattern alterations, but I think I might have to start lengthening the body pieces on my next projects.

Overall, I am quite happy with this blouse, and it feels good to finally finish this project instead of letting it die a slow death in the basket. I am now excited to dig up more pieces and see what else comes up!